Halloween
by The Queen Of Mischief
Summary: Once again, it's Halloween at the Jeffersonian, and everyone except Angela is dreading it, for their own reasons. But creative costumes are cumpulsory, so what is everyone going to wear? One shot. R&R! Enjoy!


Hey, all. This is a new fic—probably a one-shot—about Halloween day!!! I know you're all thinking the Brennan the Wonder Woman/Zach the cow/ Hodgins the police officer (or something)/ Booth the nerd/Angela the Cher, from the episode that I haven't seen but am DYING to, but this one is different. I hope, anyways. Enjoy! I own nothing.

**Chapter 1**

Halloween. Bones hated it. She thought that it was a pointless waste of time, energy and money, spent ruthlessly on costumes that would never be worn again and candy that was just going to spoil people's teeth. It was ridiculous how people actually enjoyed it.

It was a time during which little kids dressed up like corpse brides and mummies (with toilet rolls that was an unnecessary waste of trees) and the Incredible Hulk and Sarah Palin, amongst others, whilst teenage girls could dress up in playboy bunny-type outfits and not be labeled skanks.

She wondered why no one ever dressed up as a corpse _groom._ Corpse brides were all the rage, but _grooms?_ Oh no…

Booth hated it. He hated it because his father had never allowed him to go trick-or-treating. He didn't know anything about the fun of it (**A/N, technically, neither do I, seeing as I'm living in Singapore and no one ever trick-or-treats here, but I'll just take a wild guess and say that it's tonnes of fun**).

By the time he had gotten to an age where his father's rules didn't apply to him anymore, he was too old. You couldn't dress up like an alien and go out with a pumpkin basket thing begging strangers for candy when you're eighteen. Apart from it being not very socially acceptable, he would probably be locked up. It was tragic.

Zack couldn't be more indifferent about it. His parents had not forbade him from trick-or-treating, or celebrating, but he begged them if he could skip it. He had no friends.

No one wanted to befriend a person whose smartness oozed from every pore. Who would want to stand next to a person who was of a higher IQ than them and be compared?

Not that Zack ever thought of any of these things. This is just how a random person could sympathize with his plight. His parents tried to shove him out the door once, wearing a costume he couldn't recall, but he had anticipated the move and climbed back up to his room using a rope he had hung out his window, that was obscured by a tree.

Hodgins was spooked from a one time when he was a kid and he had gone into a haunted house on Halloween, thanks to some cruel kids who had taunted him and pressured him into doing it.

Those rats had planted ghouls and ghosts and withes around the place. It wasn't that that scared him. It was the dead, skinned rats, with their hearts severed and impaled on matchsticks propped against a wall.

He wondered how any human being in their right minds could ever do something so cruel to innocent animals. He had learnt that things like these happened to people too. Humans. It was…inhuman.

It was, in fact, part of the reason he decided to become a forensic anthropologist. If he couldn't undo the crimes of others, perhaps he could at least bring them to justice.

Anyway, he had gone home, after that horrific incident, having _almost_ wet himself—he was seven, for Pete's sake!—and told his parents what had happened. Being too preoccupied with their financial accounts, they had hmmed and haahed and sent him off with a "That's too bad, dear. Now mommy and daddy have some work to do".

Cam disliked Halloween. She would much rather be watching NYPD Blue, or CSI, or even ER! She despised going out and socializing with people more than she had to.

She understood that a certain amount of chitchat and laughing with schoolmates was essential for her life to be as passable and manageable and easy as possible.

But she didn't see why people had to overkill so much and go for all these ridiculous outings with people they called 'friends' but who would only desert them the next year when they were in different classes. Why bother with slumber parties and going to movies, and sleepovers, and Thanksgiving dinners and all that?

Why do more than what was required of you in a field that was not at all academic? Socializing is like a hamburger. It is good, and fun, but too much of it is bad for your health.

Angela was the only one who was gung ho about Halloween. She loved the costumes, the most. She was an artist at heart, of course, and always made her own.

She would be sure to add fiery red and orange hues and feathers, or mystifying, enchanting blues and greens. Her characters would be one of a kind, no one else would be dressed up just like her.

She would be individual, unique, and she loved that sensation. No one else ever dressed up as Calypso, or Demeter, or Eos. That was why she loved Halloween.

--

Halloween. It was once again that horrible time of the year. According to everyone except Angela, of course. However, it was a tradition at the Jeffersonian that everyone wear a costume for at least half the day on Halloween and that it had to be completely creative.

Like no coming to work with a bleached lab coat saying you're a scientist, or wearing a suit saying you're a lawyer. If you wanna be a lawyer, you have to make a cardboard shark head and wear it. Rules.

It was completely stupid, thought Brennan. How could anyone take anyone else seriously if they were dressed up like Shamu? That was just an example, by the way.

She had to buy a costume. And fast. Halloween was tomorrow. She went to a shop that sold costumes, where business was booming. She looked through costumes of Hello Kitty, E.T, the Grim Reaper, tourists, highways (wear a black sweat suit and past yellow and white tape to resemble lines on a road. Also, stick tiny cars and traffic lights everywhere), cigarettes, killer bees and so on.

She settled on a costume at long last, that was the least demeaning and embarrassing to wear and bought it. Going home, she felt a burden lift off her shoulders. But then she prepared herself for the next day, which she knew would be absolute hell.

--

She went to the Jeffersonian the next day, trying to convince herself that there were people in there who would have more embarrassing costumes than her.

She wondered how Booth would have dressed up. Yes, he was coming too. He claimed it was to laugh at their ridiculous costumes. Yeah, right. Maybe he would come as…hmm. A cat burglar, in one of those tight suits. Sexy. She shook away all these inappropriate thoughts.

Reaching the lab, she saw Zack and Cam and Angela and Hodgins and Booth. It was hilarious. She still clutched the corners of her cloak and decided to see what everyone else was wearing first.

Zack was dressed as a watermelon wedge. He looked positively adorable, especially with that reddish cap on the top of his head. It was enough to make her want to hug him. He looked somewhat uncomfortable, though, since he couldn't put his hands by his sides, he had to place them on the front of the horizontal wedge.

Hodgins was wearing those uniforms that those people guarding the Buckingham palace wore, big fuzzy hat and all. His buttons were polished obscenely well. He even had a fake rifle. That was cute.

Cam was looking gloomy in her fairy costume, which Angela had shoved her into. She was supposed to be the fairy of earth or something like that. She was wearing a green dress that reached above her knees. The skirt of the dress was composed of translucent glimmery leafy things and her top was sleeveless. She did look kind of like a fairy, except a bit too tall, but the green contrasted nicely with her bronze skin.

Angela was wearing a total Xena-the-warrior-princess type outfit, complete with chain-mail and gold breastplate and skirt. It looked awesome on her. Her hair was decorated with thin golden and silver chains and her legs were laced with similar ribbons. When asked, she explained that she was supposed to be Artemis, the goddess of war. That would explain the sword at her side and the daggers everywhere else.

Booth was wearing a regular collared shirt, with checkers. A bit odd for his taste. And jeans. His hair was spiked in this weird way that made it look like there was an 'M' on his head. "What're you supposed to be?" she asked.

Rolling his eyes, as though it were obvious, he held up his two hands to show claws 'sprouting' from his knuckles. She didn't get it. "But who _are_ you?"

"Wolverine, Bones! You really have to watch more TV!"

"You mean from the ten-men?"

"_X-_Men, Bones. X, not ten."

"Well, X in roman numerals is ten. That's how I remember them," she said defensively.

They were then made blatantly aware of the fact that everyone was staring at them. They heard Angela mutter "Oh, just kiss already, idiots."

They ignored this bluntly. "What're you supposed to be, anyways, Bones?" asked Booth.

"Bones," she said triumphantly.

"What?" asked everyone in synchrony.

She took off her coat with a flourish to reveal one of those somewhat body-hugging sweat-suits with the human skeleton on it as though she were standing behind an invisible X-ray machine.

Booth looked impressed. "Nice one, Bones."

"Thanks, Booth," she was surprised.

Zack looked astounded at the ingenuity of it all. Hodgins and Angela were too busy making out to care. Cam was staring at them in vague disgust and horror, before saying "PDA, people. Discretion, please." And taking a wad of papers, she shoved them in between Hodgins and Angela and wriggled them apart.

Booth and Brennan stared at them, grinning. Maybe this Halloween wouldn't be so bad after all.


End file.
